Sally & Rosie

In the spring of 2007, I noticed that Rosie was having difficulty walking on uneven surfaces, and then in May she worsened, becoming 6/10 lame on a circle on the right rein. At the time, she was shod on all four feet, so at first I asked my farrier if he could improve her breakover, but it made very little difference to the lameness.

My vet nerve blocked Rosie, and the lameness was islolated to her foot. Xrays revealed nothing, so she was referred for an MRI scan. The scan showed a small tear to the collateral ligament where it attached to the pedal bone in the off fore, and also some moderate navicular changes in both front feet. It was recommended that she had a six month rest period and remedial shoeing, along with shock wave therapy and a course of Tiludron.

The remedial shoes did not suit Rosie, and when she was brought back into work, due to their extra length behind, Rosie kept stepping on them and pulling them off. My farrier was unable to offer any other solution, and re-shod her in a set of conventional shoes. Almost immediately, despite all the box rest, Rosie went lame again. The shoes were removed and we were back to square one. The next day, I decided to check on her soundness, and to my astonishment, without shoes, she was completely sound. I rang my vet to suggest that we try her without shoes for a while, but he was not keen, and suggested another farrier who was very good at making special shoes for this kind of situation.

This farrier did indeed work very hard on Rosie's feet, but despite doing everything he could, Rosie was still lame. After two weeks of waiting for the new handmade shoes to take effect, with no improvement, my vet finally conceded that they weren’t helping and agreed to continue Rosie’s treatment without shoes.

I contacted Trevor and told him everything that had happened, and he said that Rosie’s problems were typical of collateral ligament damage. In November 2007, Trevor started trimming Rosie, and she commenced her transition to barefoot. As well as the instant improvement in her soundness, there was an incredible change in her balance, and in particular her canter felt masses better

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In the Spring of 2008, I decided to start competing Rosie again. At Easter, she qualified for the Royal International in the BSPA Ridden Traditional, and then in June, she pulled out all the stops, and at the South of England Show, we qualified for the Horse of the Year Show CHAPS Ridden Championship, which was my dream come true!